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Monday, October 31, 2005

Gift report

On Saturday, I mentioned that I was molding some chocolate as part of a gift Jeff was doing for his team at work. I offered to do this in white chocolate so we could color it, but we opted to go with an easier approach. After tempering the Scharffen Berger chocolate we got from Whole Foods, I started in on the individual molds - here is the outcome... Chocolate Suckers!

The next item to bring in was a recipe I saw in a recent Taste of Home Holiday magazine. Black Cat Cookies have a deep chocolate cookie base from dutch cocoa and are shaped into kitty faces. The dough was pretty easy to work with and placing the wooden sticks in before baking made things much easier. Candy corn, red hots, and a fork impression (whiskers!) make up these cookies.

This is how we ended up finishing everything off to give out.

Okay... so on to tonight's dinner!

Roasted Cauliflower with Fresh Herbs and Parmesan served along side Turkey-Sausage Paella is what I made while we waited for the trick or treaters to start knockin'. Another use for the saffron we bought awhile ago. I increased the chorizo from the original recipe as 2 oz seemed to skimpy for 4 servings. This has quite a few flavors going on and it turned out very well. I used edamame instead of the peas, as that is not something we normally keep on hand. Using smoked paprika is key here as it brings a rich smokey flavor that accents the spice from the sausage.

The roasted cauliflower was a great side dish. From a quick prep and then a high heat roasting the taste seems to change as the outside gets a caramalized finish. The fresh herbs and lemon juice helps bring out a fresh vibrant flavor.

Happy Halloween Joe!Everything looks great! I loved the chocolate lolipops and the cat cookies, very nice!Oh, and the carved pumpkim from the previous post looks super great too!Now I have to get back to posting on my blog...!Ana